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Gonzo Opera returns with “Operas from the Crypt: The Other Side of the Veil.� Gonzo Opera ceased performances as a result of the pandemic. It is coming back with its format of serious classical music set to silly subject matters. “The Other Side of the Veil� will have shows Thursday, Oct. 31, Friday, Nov. 1, and Sunday, Nov. 3, at FUSION | The Cell.

“Gonzo Opera is genuine opera but using wild and crazy characters and plots one would never expect to find in traditional opera,� said Daniel Steven Crafts, the opera’s composer. “The first Gonzo was ‘Too Much Coffee Man’ based on the comic book character by Shannon Wheeler. It premiered in Portland, (Oregon), in 2006 and was to everyone’s surprise a huge success, as no one knew what to expect. We then took it down to Comic-Con in San Diego, where it was also a hit. Folks kept telling us essentially, ‘I thought I hated opera, but this is great.’ � “Operas from the Crypt: The Other Side of the Veil� is based on “Tales from the Crypt� comics from the 1950s. “It’s simultaneously creepy and funny – and above all, great fun,� Crafts said. “The libretto is by Jonathan David Dixon, who is also the stage director and set designer.� The performance features Thomas Griego as Grave Robber, Thomas Munro as Erik Ingels, Esther Moses as Marie, Megan Snow on clarinet, Ronald Thurman on bassoon and Scott Jacobsen on keyboard. Dan Haik serves as music director for the production. “There’s three singers and three instrumentalists and the three singers are local opera singers who are very good and also the instrumentalists,� Crafts said. “Most of them play with either The Santa Fe Symphony or the New Mexico Philharmonic. It is so much fun. That’s always been the case with Gonzo Opera. It is so much fun for us to put it together, and then the audience has a great time too.� Crafts said you do not have to love opera to enjoy the production. “Everybody of all ages would enjoy it just because there’s lots of funny things that go on and creepy things too,� he explained. “If you love opera, that’s great. If you hate opera, it doesn’t really matter, because you’ll get caught up in the story.� The Grave Robber is the master of ceremonies of the whole thing, Crafts said. “He’s a very mischievous character, and of course, as the name implies, he goes around digging up graves and finding skulls,� Crafts added. “And then he tells us something about the skulls that he finds. And then one of them, he tells us the whole story, and that’s the opera. He digs up the skull of the composer, Eric Ingels. And then we see the whole story unfold.�